SK Telecom tests AI-RAN to power Korea's digital highway

SK Telecom has been selected to lead a government-backed pilot project to build and test an AI-RAN network in South Korea, integrating AI computing into cellular base stations to support physical AI services like robots. The two-year initiative, part of Korea's 'AI Highway' policy, will evaluate equipment from Samsung, HFR, Ericsson, and Nokia, and demonstrate three AI services including a patrol robot for industrial safety.

SK Telecom said it has been selected to carry out a government-backed "Hyper-AI Network Infrastructure" pilot project to build a next-generation "AI-RAN" network — which uses artificial intelligence AI to optimize wireless base stations and run computing tasks on cellular hardware — and test three physical AI services under the initiative led by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency. The two-year project supports Korea's "AI Highway" policy initiative, which aims to build ultra-low-latency, highly reliable networks for physical AI such as robots. AI-RAN refers to networks in which cell towers provide AI computing power in addition to standard communication service, shifting some of a robot's AI processing load onto the network itself. SK Telecom will build and test AI-RAN equipment from four manufacturers — Samsung Electronics, HFR, Ericsson and Nokia — within a single project, comparing performance across different computing configurations. Three physical AI services will be demonstrated: a four-legged patrol robot for industrial safety mo